Washington, D.C.,
March 16, 2010 - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)
regrets and deplores the murder in Honduras of Nahún Palacios, a
beneficiary of precautionary measures handed down by the Commission on
July 24, 2009, and strongly condemns the lack of guarantees for freedom
of expression in that country.

According to the
information the Commission has received, Nahún Palacios was killed by
two unknown individuals who gunned him down with AK-47 automatic weapons
on the night of Sunday, March 14, when he was returning to his home in
the neighborhood of Los Pinos in the city of Tocoa, some 400 kilometers
north of Tegucigalpa. The information indicates that the journalist, who
was news director for Aguán Television, Channel 5, received 30 bullet
wounds, and the vehicle in which he was traveling was pocked with 42
bullet marks. The two individuals traveling with him reportedly were
injured.

Following the coup
d'état on June 28, 2009, Nahún Palacios covered the demonstrations
organized by the resistance to the coup and publicly expressed his
rejection of the overthrow of the government. According to the
information received by the Commission, on June 30, 2009, a military
operation was carried out in which troops confiscated television work
equipment from him, raided his home, held his children at gunpoint, and
seized his vehicle.

On July 24, 2009,
the IACHR granted precautionary measures for Nahún Palacios, requesting
that the State of Honduras adopt the necessary measures to protect his
life and personal integrity. According to the information received,
these measures were not implemented by the Honduran authorities. In
recent weeks, Nahún Palacios was covering the agrarian conflict taking
place in Aguán between the Movimiento Campesino Unificado (MUCA)—United
Farm Workers Movement—and business owners, as well as a military
operation that led to the seizure of weapons and drugs and the capture
of 18 people. In recent days the journalist had received new threats.

The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights and its Office of the Special Rapporteur for
Freedom of Expression deeply regret the murder of Nahún Palacios and the
fact that the State did not implement precautionary measures to protect
his life. They urge the Honduran authorities to investigate this crime
quickly and effectively and duly prosecute and punish its perpetrators
and masterminds.

The IACHR
expresses its deep concern over this third murder of a journalist in
Honduras so far this month, following the violent deaths of Joseph
Hernández Ochoa on March 1 and David Meza Montesinos on March 11. The
Inter-American Commission calls on the State of Honduras to adopt urgent
measures to guarantee the lives and integrity of journalists at risk and
to ensure the effective exercise of the right to freedom of expression.

A
principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS),
the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American
Convention on Human Rights.The Commission is composed of
seven independent members who act in a personal capacity, without
representing a particular country, and who are elected by the OAS
General Assembly.